Hand Made Valentine
by messington
Summary: Living on her own, Orihime has a pretty tight budget, so when Valentine's Day comes, she has to be creative. But what if she has to compete with Ichigo's sudden popularity, and how did that even happen? IchiHime, FLOL V-day contest 2009 fic winner.


Looking through my profile, I just happened to notice that I never published this here. It's not exactly the best time for a Valentine's Day fic, but they're read year-round, so who says you can only write/post them in February. To my surprise, this happened to win the Valentine's Day contest at FLOL last year (2009).

Disclaimer: Character belong to Kubo Tite and Shuheisha.

**Hand Made Valentine**

Today Orihime had a little more than usual to carry with her to school. As she rushed to the door, already late, she tried her best to balance the two identical boxes stacked on top of each other, wrapped in a lavender colored floral print cloth, as well as a smaller box sitting on top of those, in her arms to make sure the contents weren't jostled around too much. That in its self was a task given her tendency to space out and not be mindful of her surroundings. She would just have to pay extra attention today, try not to let her imagination run wild, and hopefully not trip or stumble.

That wasn't such a simple task for her either. This was her first Valentine's day with a boyfriend, and it wasn't just any boy. It was Ichigo Kurosaki. Her imagination wanted to work in over-drive to think of all the possible reactions to her gifts. Her favorite came to her while make the chocolates when she imagined his usually scowling face transformed with a big grin and wide, shining eyes at the wonderful treat that his thoughtful girlfriend had made him. In all reality, she knew that he wouldn't really care if she did nothing for him, but the whole idea of the day was to show her feelings, not just to give him some chocolate. Despite a lack of extra spending money, she really thought that he'd appreciate her gesture not just for what her gift was, but for the thought and effort it took for her to make it. She knew very well that he wasn't the most observant person, which often came off as him being cold or uncaring to others. She just hoped he'd be able to understand the feelings behind all the work.

Lucky for her, she managed to arrive at school with all her packages in one piece. She just hoped that the larger and more fragile ones didn't shift around too much. As she walked in, she saw Tatsuki already at her locker, changing out her shoes.

"Hello, Tatsuki-chan," the brown-haired girl chirped. Her friend looked up to see that Orihime was balancing an unusually large amount of stuff today. She couldn't help but look up and let out a soft laugh.

_She really did go through with it for that guy_, Tatsuki thought to herself and she watched Orihime shove the clothed-wrapped boxes into her locker. They fit, but just barely. "So did you stay up all night finishing up?"

"It didn't take me that long to make it all. I just had a problem with that last part. I couldn't get it to look right."

"And for the chocolates, you did just use chocolate, Orihime? Nothing strange got put on them after I left, right?" Tatsuki had tried to plead with her friend that, while Ichigo probably would eat any concoction that she came up with, it would be best to stick just to chocolate since he had quite a weakness for the stuff.

"Oh, but a little wasabi powder would have added some spice and not make it all so plain," Orihime pouted.

"I'm sure it would have, but you know how much your boyfriend–"

"How much her boyfriend what, Tatsuki?" Ichigo asked, appearing behind Tatsuki at the start of the row of lockers.

"Eh, it's nothing you haven't heard before," she brushed off. She looked over as her childhood friend walked over to them, and Orihime made a bit of a scramble to make sure that her locker was shut. Ichigo had his bag tucked under his arm as usual, but there was a pink stuffed bear sticking out of the back that caught Tatsuki's eye. "Hey, what's that in your bag?"

"Some girl shoved it into my hands and yelled something about not finding me scary anymore. I was going to give it to Yuzu when I got home. She likes that kind of stuff," he said nonchalantly.

"You're just going to accept other gifts from girls?"

"What was I supposed to do? Chase her down and tell her I can't accept it? The girl ran off before I could even say anything, and it's not like I was going to keep it for myself. There's some chocolate that was put in my locker too. It feels like a waste to throw this stuff away."

"Since when did you get so popular?" Tatsuki asked now clearly confused. This time last year, any girl that approached him either didn't look directly at him or tried to avoid his path, and this year he's getting chocolates and stuffed animals from random girls. Not only that, but the one person who should care about his rise in popularity hadn't said a word. "Doesn't this make you a little upset, Orihime?"

"But I can't make the other girls not give Kurosaki-kun chocolates, so there's no use getting upset about it."

This was one of those times that Tatsuki felt lucky that both of her friends were a little on the clueless side when it came to matters like this. It was probably for the best anyway.

"See, Tatsuki, Orihime understands," he gloated.

"Yeah, sure, whatever," Tatsuki mumbled as she walked away from the pair.

"Have you ever gotten Valentine's chocolate from other girls before, Kurosaki-kun?" Orihime asked, still curious about the presents her boyfriend had received. Honestly, it made her a bit nervous about what she'd brought. None of it was fancy as chocolates made for confessing or as nicely-made like that bear looked to be.

"Not really. I don't get why this year is suddenly different. Also, Orihime, I told you to start using my first name now. It feels strange that you're still calling me Kurosaki-kun."

"I'm sorry. It's hard to change, because you're just Kurosaki-kun to me."

"Don't worry about it too much," he said grabbing her hand. "I just like hearing you say my name," he mumbled, obviously a little embarrassed to be admitting that sort of thing, in school no less. "Let's get to class," he said as he turned away to hopefully keep Orihime from seeing his flustered expression. He just walked on with her hand in his. She didn't need to see him to know exactly what kind of face he was making. Her healthy imagination painted a picture in her mind, which, of course, cause her to giggle.

The two walked into class as they would any other day, taking their seats once the teacher came in to start class. The uneventful history lesson began, and Orihime found herself focused less on the teacher and more at staring off at an undefined point of the horizon. It was times like these that she felt lucky to have a window seat. As she stared off into the partly cloudy sky, all she could do was wonder about Ichigo's sudden popularity. Honestly, she didn't feel threatened by it. He seemed so completely casual about it that she knew those girls didn't matter to him at all. Knowing him, he probably didn't even know their names, and, for all she knew, they could even be in the classroom with them. What had bugged her was that loving him felt special. He was someone most of the world didn't think twice about, but she had an insight on him to know how wrong they all were. Did these girls see it too? Do they love the same kindness that she loves? Have they grown to love his scowl as she always had?

This was supposed to be a happy day with him enjoying her surprise and being reminded of how much she truly loved him. She didn't want to share that with anyone. Of course, all of those thoughts made her feel incredibly selfish, so she closed her eyes and took a few deep breaths. Lunch would be coming soon, and that was her time.

When class had let out for their lunch break, Orihime quickly made her way to Ichigo, making sure to tell him to wait for five minutes then meet her on the roof. He then watched her scurry off to who knows where. He couldn't help but let out of a soft laugh as she ran off and took his time putting his books away. He waited for the five minutes she requested and then slowly headed to the roof.

Just as he stepped out onto the roof, a small brunette girl came over to him. She was holding a small carefully-wrapped box with a big bow on top that was obviously chocolates of some sort. He wasn't going to be a jerk about this, because he didn't want to spoil his mood for the whole lunch break. Orihime was waiting for him, so he'd just take the box and go. Little did he know that Orihime had set up a spot just off to the side, not quite able to see what was going on, but certainly able to hear it.

"Um, Kurosaki-san, I just wanted to give you this," the girl said thrusting the gift out in front of her with both hands. "That other girl was around you this morning, so I didn't want to overwhelm you or anything, and I had to do this in person."

"Why is everyone giving me chocolates? I thought you girls were all afraid of me," he plainly asked, trying not to sound too threatening.

"B-but that was before Inoue-san."

"Wait, what does Orihime have to do with this? I'd think that having a girlfriend would make other girls not want to give me chocolates."

"Well, because when Inoue-san is around you're not so scary. When that's gone, it's really easy to see your good qualities and without that scary look, you…y-you're really cute," the girl nervously said.

Ichigo was at a bit of a loss. Any change in his mood just felt effortless when Orihime was around, so he really hadn't given thought to a change. Had it not been for Tatsuki commenting on the same thing (well, not the cute part), he'd have no idea that he wasn't scowling as much. Now he had no idea what to tell this girl in front of him. He could use his gruff personality that never made girls look twice and give her a good scare, but that didn't really seem right. He didn't mind being a hoodlum when it came to beating up guys who still teased him about his hair, but acting like that to girl with a misplaced crush on him would just be too much.

"I can't accept that from you. I have a girlfriend, so she's the only one I really want to get chocolates from. She's the only one I like." He started off in the direction he knew Orihime would be. It was where they normally had lunch. He didn't even look over to the girl to see her reaction to his words, so all he heard was footsteps and the door he just used to get on the roof slam shut. When he made it over to Orihime, he could see her instantly trying to seem occupied, as if she hadn't been listening. His scowl broke, and a slightest smile warmed his face. "So what is it that you made me wait for?" he asked sitting next to her. He could have brought up what he knew she heard, he didn't want to have to bother. She already knew how he felt, and if she didn't, she was reminded of it in his last words to the girl.

"I don't really have the money this month to go out and buy you anything nice, Kuro– Ichigo-kun," she corrected herself. "So I was going to see if there was something that I could make, like a special lunch or something, so I told Tatsuki-chan about it. She told me that your mom always made you the best lunches, and she told me in elementary school you were always excited about lunch to see what was in your bento. And I know that I can't compare with the memory you have of what she'd make you, and I don't think I should. I just want to start new ones," said, handing him one of the two lunch boxes.

He was a bit hesitant to open it, knowing her taste in food, but after listening to her and her reasons for making his lunch, he found himself getting anxious. He had a horrible tendency to each anything she made, which always ended with regret and a case of really bad heartburn. What he saw when he opened the box took him by surprise. The first and most obvious thing was what had been placed of the rice portion. It was a likeness of him. The face was cut out of what looked to be a large slice of daikon, since it didn't stand out much from the white of the rice. The hair was made up of shredded carrots, which looked like a really good representation of his messy, orange hair. His features were cut out of nori, and to his amusement, she'd made his trademark scowl. There were also the side-dishes, some of which were the ones he remembered his mom making like enoki mushrooms with the bottoms wrapped in bacon, small Vienna sausages, each cut into a little octopus, and his favorite treat of two fried prawns.

"Orihime, this is…" he trailed off, still at a loss for words. He just concentrated on how neatly everything was placed, and how much thought she put into something as simple a his lunch. "Thank you. But you know," he said looking back at his likeness sitting atop the rice. "I'm going to have a hard time eating my face or picking it apart."

"That's okay," she laughed. "Because I made you chocolates too, so now you won't be too full with rice to eat them. I'm sorry I couldn't get you some fancy chocolates from a gourmet store. They look kind of sloppy too, but I tried one when I was done, and they taste great," she said giving him the other box. This one was red, much smaller than the two lunch boxes, and had a ribbon tied around it. He hesitantly untied the ribbon and opened the box to see a half dozen misshapen truffles. Again, he was a bit worried about what the filling of these were, but he was more surprised at how much work she had to have put into his two gifts.

"Do you really think I care about where you got them? I'm just wondering how much time you spent on all of this. You shouldn't really bother yourself so much."

"But I liked making all of it for you. I thought maybe you'd be more impressed if I got you something fancy, that's all. I guess it was a little silly of me to think that way."

"Don't worry about it, Orihime. I'll have a few when we finish lunch. Are they just chocolate?"

"Not you too! Tatsuki made sure to tell me just to make chocolate ones. She even came over when I was making them to make sure I didn't add anything, but I wanted to make them special," she said with a slight pout. Ichigo made a mental note to thank Tatsuki later, though he couldn't help but admire just how adorable Orihime looked when she pouted like that.

"But…They are special, because…you spent a lot of time on them for me," he nervously said. He was getting better that trying to be a bit more natural when it came to trying to make her feel better when she was hard on herself. "Plus, if Tatsuki told you keep them plain because I like chocolate, she's telling you the truth. I'm very happy…to eat the chocolate you made me," he replied. That turned her pout into a bright smile. That was it, he couldn't take anymore. Setting down both the boxes, he reached out to gently caress her cheek before leaning in to kiss her. It didn't matter that they were at school. He was always better at doing things to show how he felt than he was talking about how he felt.

As they broke away from the kiss, he started to think that maybe now he was starting understand just what all the fuss that was made over this day. The only problem was that now he had to worry about White Day.

a/n: Orihime's lunch box was taken from, I believe, the Korean drama version of Hana Yori Dango, which changed Tsukushi's cookies of Tsukasa's expressions to a lunch box that looked like him. I just figured that was a very Orihime-like thing to do, since she's always liked Ichigo's scowl.

I also, obviously, wrote this with intention to do a White Day fic, which I only got about 1/4 finished. Maybe, one day, it'll get finished, but right now, I'm working most on my Shuuhei/Rangiku AU.


End file.
